Chylene
Chylene is a forested planet skating on the edge of the Unknown Regions, far from Imperial or New Republic space and having few stellar neighbors. It is home to a winged humanoid species called the Chyleni who have little contact with the rest of the galaxy. The star system itself has very little of value to the galactic economy, so it has been left largely undisturbed in the great history of the galaxy. This is mostly because it's too much hassle and money for too little return to actually bother to go out there and harvest anything of use or value. Geography/Climate Like most other planets, Chylene has a varied sort of geography. Vast continents stretch across the northern and southern hemispheres, with neither pole actually perched on land. Over half the planet is covered by various oceans linked by straits and thin seas between the continents. *Northern Continents - Nrella and Yranna are in the temperate zone and are considered 'breadbaskets' of the planet, as most of their rolling plains are home to the majority of the farms and pastureland on Chylene. Sandy Tholling is mostly a vast cool desert near the northern pole, pockmarked with crystalline oases and is the source of most of the sacred sands used in the Chyleni Art. *Equatorial Continents - Mostly little more than a lengthy archipelago, the Islands of Ilendron are home to the fisherfolk of the Chyleni, the shipmasters. Formed by an active chain of volcanoes, the black sands of the islands are carefully gathered to use in the Art as well. *Southern Continents - Most of the Chyleni live in the deep forests of the largest continent on the planet, Phendrellian. The planet's lone spaceport can be found on a mesa rising out of the forest at the foot of the Berynnia mountain chain. The highest reaches of the mountains are covered in snow year-round, and their heights are sufficient that only the most mythical of Chyleni can be said to have actually flown over them. *Isolated Continents - Scattered all over the globe in various locations on the oceans are small continents barely worthy of names, occasionally hosting settlements of Chyleni who choose to live as hermits or simply away from the stifling society on Phendrellian. Most have seaports or flitterports that allow them to visit the mainlands when they choose. Their climates vary depending on their latitude and time of year. Weather Chylene is a planet not prone to horrific storms, although some small hurricanes have been recorded out on the ocean. The winds tend to be sufficient to the winged sapients being able to fly without undue effort but not so strong as to cause the evolution of more stunted and gnarled trees. Rain is suitable for the growing of food on the northern continents, although it only falls randomly on Tholling. Ice packs are retained at either pole, and the tilt of Chylene's axis is enough to cause moderate changes in the seasons over the course of any given year. Chylene's four moons are also suitable for causing the most interesting and intricate system of tides that one famous Chyleni went insane trying to calculate with precision. Flora/Fauna The dominant species on Chylene are winged sentients called Chyleni. Chylene also sports a full range of life in the forest, both ground-dwellers and tree-dwellers, as well as great mammals and fish in the seas. Notable species of fauna * Kren - Four-legged ruminants who are the basic 'meat' staple on the planet. Equivalent to the average cow, they produce milk and fertilizer and are used to ensure the fields are properly grazed. * Barees - Fleet running creatures roughly the size of a Shetland pony and as friendly as a spiteful kid brother. Only the most sturdy Chyleni have managed to tame them, and they're much in demand as guards for the farmlands on the planet. * Maelryn - The giants of the oceans, maelryn are worshipped as gods by certain sects of the Chyleni. Sleek and fishy, they have teeth nearly four feet long that are prized amongst the Chyleni. Only the Elders of the Clans are permitted to have a maelryn tooth, and the supply is carefully guarded as it's extremely dangerous to go hunting for one of the monstrous fish to replenish the supply. Any given tooth is scrimshawed with details of the Elder's life and death and is planted roots-down in the Great Circle when the Elder dies. * Sorenwyrm - The Sorenwyrm, named after its discoverer, is a worm-like creature that lives on the most inhospitable of the mountains in the Berynnia range. The sheer silk of its spinning is cultivated and harvested by the Chyleni and used in the richest of textiles. Given the viciousness of the worms and the resultant rarity of the harvested silk, only the higher levels of Chyleni society can claim ownership of even one garment, and the ownership of many is the mark of the richest members of society. The Chief Elder is permitted to have silk for his official robes of office, but the other Elders may only have silk sashes. Notable species of flora * The Trees - The forests of Chylene grow vast trees whose trunks are thick and nearly arrow-straight. Wide branches and the knotty boles have been fashioned over time to be habitation for the Chyleni people, who build sturdy platforms on them, much like the Ewoks. Some of the densest clusters of trees even have entire buildings resting comfortably on those branches. While the variety of trees is quite astounding, it's a planetary mystery as to why they all more or less grow in the same fashion. * Crynda - The wheat-like staple of much of Chyleni food, crynda is tilled on the breadbasket continents in great fields that are harvested twice a year. With a little bit of a nutty flavor to it, crynda stalks are used to feed the kren or in some weaving of mats and baskets while the seeds are ground into mealflour and used in every sort of baking application known to the Chyleni. * Eleran - This silver-grey and puffy plant is the source of the vast majority of the textiles created by the Chyleni. It grows upon the crowns and along the boles of the vast trees like great chains of flowers. It is also the source of one of the few Chyleni exports: a blue and silver alcoholic drink called elerain. The grey vines are also harvested to be used in weaving and ropework. The strongest vines are used for fishnets and to hold various buildings together strung between the trees. Eleran is carefully harvested by the Chyleni to ensure that no one tree's mother vine suffers too much cultivation and dies. Government Chylene has an oligarchy as its form of government. A High Council of the Elders is in overall charge of the planet, with lesser Councils handling various specific duties as needed. To be a Councilor, one must be elected by one's Clan, and often, the Elder of the Clan is the one elected to be a Councilor as well. Unlike many other planets, Chylene has never had any 'war of the sexes', with males and females serving equally at all levels of society and government. The notion of someone being 'the first female' is completely foreign to the Chyleni. There are 144 recognized Clans on the planet and thus 144 Councilors. Any given Councilor may have up to two Junior Councilors who can be used to sit in chambers and listen to the speeches or otherwise handle the more mundane duties of the senior Councilor. Each Councilor also has a personal staff to see to liaising with the rest of the Councils and the Councilor's Clan. The planet as a whole votes on who gets to be on the High Council, but candidates may only be chosen from the existing Councilors. Councilors serve four-year terms and may be re-elected as many times as their Clan chooses. It's considered extremely poor taste to try to interfere with another Clan's electoral process. Tenure on the High Council is until retirement or death, and thus High Council elections are generally unscheduled chaotic affairs in which the vast majority of the Chyleni cheerfully join in. Once a year, there is a special election for the role of Senator on Coruscant, and this generally is 'won' by whatever poor soul was politically embarrassed in the past year and staffed by Chyleni who are themselves in some sort of disfavor with the current High Council. The Senator has no say in the voting processes of the Councils and is simply the mouthpiece for the High Council and messenger boy (or girl) for when there's actually any real news to bring back from Coruscant. As of the return of Chylene to the Empire in 15 ABY, the Chyleni Senator has been on record as having never requested to address the Senate, whether it was to bring a Chyleni matter to the Senate's attention or to provide support or show lack of support to any matter, motion, or person brought before the Senate as a whole. The Chyleni Senators over time have a voting record that has tended to favor 'order' over 'risk'. Below the various Councils are appointed Guilds whose job it is to ensure Things Get Done. This includes proper farming, due cultivation of the eleran so the people can be clothed, etc. Unlike the Councils, which are mostly politicians, the Guilds are most often full of competent individuals who wield a great deal of the day-to-day power on the planet, simply because they can withhold their work and seriously interfere with peoples' lives. The most powerful Guildmaster is the one in charge of the Art and all that it entails, and the Guildmaster has successfully 'suggested' that the Elder of the High Council might want to step down on more than one occasion. The term 'Guildmaster' must be noted to be gender-neutral, as there is no corresponding female term such as 'mistress' in Chyleni language. Below the actual governing bodies are the various Clans themselves. While most laws are handled at the Council level, any behavior not ruled upon there is handled within the Clans, with some Clans allowing things others consider sheer madness. Each Clan has an Elder who is typically the most senior mentally and physically competent member of the Clan regardless of gender, with succession being a way of life. There are very few cases of squabbling over who gets to be the next Elder unless there are arguments over which was hatched first out of a single clutch of Chyleni or clutches which hatched on the same day. The Elder of a Clan is the ultimate authority for the Clan itself and is held accountable for any poor behavior on behalf of any members of the Clan, so loyalty to the Clan is paramount and offenders are generally punished from within before the courts ever get a whiff of trouble. Economy Chylene's economy is an extensive and extremely complex system of bartering that occasionally involves what the rest of the galaxy would regard as money. Most Clans will specialize in particular aspects of the economy, generally aligning with whatever Guilds many of the Clan are members of. The Guildmasters meet monthly to assign prices to everything that is formally sold in the society, and every new item to be bartered has to be approved and assigned a basic 'value' by the Guildmasters before it can be publicly traded. Home-crafts, such as trinkets made for friends, are not counted amongst the publicly traded goods and are often bartered quietly amongst the people without any need for official oversight. Chylene manages to be self-sufficient through careful shepherding of the planet's resources versus the actual population. By utilizing heavy trade amongst the Clans, the Chyleni manage to have most goods available to the entire planet, with the rarest and most precious only available to those able to purchase and transport things to their homes. As the concept of 'making do' is a way of life to the Chyleni, most simply never developed a lust for things they couldn't obtain relatively easily. The rarest commodities on the planet are precious gemstones and metals, including the sacred sands culled from the Islands of Ilendron and the desert dunes of Tholling. The sacred sands are never exported, on pain of death of the offender and Exile to the offender's entire Clan. Jewelry is something that is an affectation of nearly all Chyleni and the foundation of much of the actual money changing hands, with certain formalized pendants representing certain numbers of kren or other saleable items. Money-jewelry, called arhent, can only be made by one particular Guild that lives in the Berynnia Mountains. Guilds The Guilds of Chylene are responsible for the control of all items within the economy and they vary based on the natural groupings that arose from prehistoric times. * Arhent Guild - Responsible for the manufacture of the arhent jewelry that serves as coinage when such things are needed. * Honored Caretakers Guild - Responsible for the elderly and ensuring their twilight years are full of happiness and usefulness for society. * Farmers Guild - Duties include care for the kren and the planting and harvesting of crynda on the northern continents. * Warriors Guild - They serve as the police, military, and honor guards amongst Chyleni society. Only the best may serve as guards to the sacred sands. The Warriors Guild also serves as judges for the various formal combats on the planet, with the most senior Guild members being on panels of judges for the most serious honor duels. * Laborers Guild - These Chyleni are responsible mostly for the physical infrastructure and maintenance of the planet, including the shipping of goods from continent to continent. All pilots are part of the Laborers Guild. * Fishers Guild - Mostly Islanders, the Fishers hunt the maelryn when their supplies of teeth are low for the accession of a new Elder and also supply regular fish and shellfish and kelp products to the mainlands. They are also the best sailors on the planet. * Woodcrafters Guild - Responsible for all of the building projects on Chylene that aren't the metal pylons as well as lesser woodworking projects for public use. Also responsible for the creation of the tools that nearly every Chyleni has at hand, in conjunction with the Metalworkers Guild. * Metalworkers Guild - Most of the technicians and metal construction workers are part of this Guild. Also, those Chyleni who work with and maintain the vast communications arrays are part of this Guild, although there are rumors they might want to form their own Guild to separate from those within the Guild who do all the physical labor. The Metalworkers supply half of the tools used by the Chyleni in their daily lives. * Leatherworker and Textile Guild - The most plentiful of the Guilds, the LTG works the hides of the kren and fibers of eleran and even the silks of the Sorenwyrm to create all of the fabrics and leathers and garments needed on the planet. While individual families can and do occasionally do their own home-crafting of clothing, it's equally as uncommon as it is in real life in America. * Ritual Guild - This Guild is the the second-most powerful one on Chylene, as rituals make up such a massive part of Chyleni life. The Guild has a representative in every Clan and often several to help with teaching. They are responsible for enacting, altering, and retiring the rituals used in daily life by all members of Chyleni society. Unlike all the other Guilds, the Ritual Guild is made up of the wisest and most honored members of Chyleni people, so they are already of a master's age and hold such rank within society. * Artists Guild - The most powerful of the Guilds, the Artists are the practitioners of the sacred Art and are the actors, dancers, and artists of Chylene. The Artists Guild is the only one impossible to be born into or to join by lifemating, for talent in the Art is the only thing important to the Guild and the only prerequisite needed. Of all the Guilds, it is also the one whose members have the widest Clan representation, because talent in the Art is scattered throughout Chyleni society. Most Guilds have an apprentice/journey/master sort of rank system. The overall leader of any particular Guild, regardless of gender, is called Guildmaster, and the Council of Guildmasters is responsible for overall oversight of the planet's economy and the relative prices of any particular goods for bartering as well as the planet's spiritual life. The Council of Guildmasters also sends representatives to the various other Councils as advisors or as full-fledged members, depending on how involved the Council is with the Guild's work in the Council's area of responsibility. Chyleni children are often apprenticed to a Guild at the age of 12, after spending the 10th and 11th years visiting the various Guilds or speaking to the local Guild representatives to be evaluated and tested for entrance. As some Guilds are practically Clan affairs, some do not often take in apprentices who are not in the Clan unless the child displays remarkable talent. Others will take anyone who expresses an interest and is deemed to be 'trainable'. Typically sometime during or after a child's 16th year, when they gain their second name and are considered adults, they move on to the journey stage of their Guild life and are often given more responsibilities, with the most mature and brightest journeys being permitted solo postings in neighboring villages, for example. Most Guild members will live out their lives as journeys. Only the most wise and skilled Guild members are granted the rank of master, perhaps only a quarter of any Guild's members at the most. Most Guilds will have a Council of Masters to oversee the Guild's affairs and to assist the Guildmaster in dealing with the rest of the planet. It's not unheard of for young Chyleni to switch Guilds during their apprentice years, but it's less common for a journey to switch midstream, particularly journeys older than the age of 20 and/or already in a lifemate situation. Many journeys who switch often do so in order to be able to spend time with their lifemate, if that lifemate is in a different Guild. The resignation of a master to join a different Guild is a gossiping subject of the highest order, especially since the master would have to start as an apprentice with children at least more than half his or her age. Clothing Following their planetary traditions, the Chyleni most often wear voluminous robes that flow gracefully around their bodies when they fly. These robes are made of eleran or Sorenwyrm silk (for the Chief Elder) by the Leatherworking and Textile Guild. Under the robes are tunics of varying styles that are belted to keep the fabric in check. Naturally, all Chyleni attire is made according to ancient patterns that allow for full use of their wings and movement of their tails. Embroidery is a subsection of the Guild that makes all Chyleni clothes special. Even the poorest Chyleni is able to afford moderately-embroidered fabrics for their personal use because it was always felt that everyone deserved some beauty in their lives, especially on a functional garment. Due to the randomness of the rains of Chylene, all Chyleni robes have hoods on them. Boots, belts, holsters, these are all mostly crafted by the Guild, versus home-crafted by an individual Chyleni. Again, function as well as beauty is inherent as the leatherworked goods are not only comfortable, they also look good and are of sturdy construction to last a long time. Only the highest and richest levels of Chyleni society can afford the hard-to-obtain Sorenwyrm silk garments. Councilors are permitted merely a sash as part of their robes, while the Chief Elder actually has a full set of robes made of this silk for daily use. Since there are citizens wealthier than the Councilors and Elders, the Chief Elder is not the only Chyleni wearing silk. Most Chyleni prefer not to flash their opulence and will restrain themselves to a pair of silk gloves or accents on a tunic, although the most gaudy will actually have a whole tunic made out of it either to impress others or to offer to a potential lifemate as a token of affection. All Chyleni adorn themselves with jewelry, and silver is the most common precious metal in use on the planet. The Metalworkers Guild supplies all precious and semi-precious stones and metals to the planet as well as does the vast majority of the actual working of the materials into cunning pretty objects to be strung on leather thongs or worked into fabrics. One of the items unique to Chylene in terms of jewelry are wing-bands. These are long silver cylinders that have runes painted on them (generally in blue metallic paint) that clasp around the first, long upper 'arm' of a Chyleni's wing. They have long been used to hide valuables in the past and are capable of hiding the average single-blade lightsaber hilt without falling off the wing-spar in question. Technology The technology of Chylene often has marked dissimilarities. While on the one hand, most of the planet still lives on a relatively medieval sort of level, eschewing metal and computers as needless things (aside from jewelry); on the other, many Chyleni have at least one or two bits of what the rest of the galaxy would consider essential technologies, generally involving communications. Metal is mostly used to construct tall pylons to either act as standalone trees or as supports to ailing ancient trees. These pylons also have metal-supported platforms, although the structures built upon or around them tend to be made of wood and are almost never used for living quarters. Most Chyleni lighting is created through the use of a native phosphorescent globular rocks that can be found in the darkest bits of the planet, such as the depths of the oceans, the deepest caves, the darkest roots of the forest. These glowing rocks range in size from marble-like all the way up to Ewok or Jawa-sizes and can be found in a multitude of colors. No Chyleni scientist has managed to discover what mineral they're made of or how they glow continuously, although it's known that they stop glowing if taken out of Chylene's biosphere. Sailing technology on Chylene is equivalent to modern-day Earth, with composite materials used along with wood to ensure the swiftest and most durable vessels. Sails are still in in mainline use out of respect for the winds the Chyleni fly on, although every vessel also has at least one regular engine in it. Ground vehicles range from speeders and swoops to farming transports, although most Chyleni consider it lazy to use a speeder or swoop if one is able-winged, even if the speeders or swoops are faster. There are also flying vehicles on Chylene, mostly used for transporting the elderly and for transcontinental journeys, but again, the Chyleni preference for using their own wings means they are not as common a sight as on other planets. Chylene has one spaceport, and it only infrequently entertains visitors. There is a tiny fleet of four orbital craft permanently stationed there, with only two ships capable of hyperspace journeys. One is always in use by the Senator for travel to and from Coruscant, and the other is a backup. Most of the planet's transcontinental craft are also docked here when not in use. Chylene also sports various industries that tend to to be cottage-based rather than great factories polluting the air. The Metalworking Guild is in charge of many of these industries, although the Leathercrafter and Textile Guild handles nearly anything involving clothes. The Woodcrafter Guild is in charge of most carpentry on the planet, as well as the tinier home-based woodworking that nearly every Chyleni is adept at. Given their ties to the trees, it's no wonder that the Chyleni use it in nearly everything and teach it to their hatchlings as soon as they can pick up an awl. Lest one think Chylene is completely backwards, the planet does sport fully-modern sanitation infrastructures that are geared to being environmentally-friendly, and recycling is a way of life. There are also modern communications technologies, with many of the metal pylons serving as transmitter/receivers and subspace terminals, since most traditional Chyleni refuse to live in buildings on the platforms attached to them. Culture The Chyleni evolved as an aerial society, and their entire way of life involves being able to fly without technological aid, although they do that as well. The Chyleni are an extremely spiritual people and have long regarded themselves as the caretakers of their home planet rather than its masters or conquerors. They are an inward-looking society, with most Chyleni never even dreaming of leaving their planet to go explore the galaxy. Leaving home, to them, is tantamount to Exile, which is a fate worse than death for most Chyleni. Chyleni society is grouped up into loose families called Clans, of which there are 144. These are almost always blood relations, although the occasional adoption of orphans isn't unheard of. Most adult Chyleni are members of various Guilds that handle the actual economy and the production of all raw goods and finished items on the planet. Guild membership isn't automatically hereditary or blood-related, but some powerful traditions have made unwritten rules about what sort of person may or may not join a particular Guild. Chyleni Clans tend to live in the same areas on the planet, such as the Arhent Guild living in the Berynnia Mountains, although there are always representatives in other places to ensure proper flow of their goods and services. Tradition and custom are extremely important to Chylene's people, although neither are so strict and eternal that they have never changed over time. It just takes quite some time (and a groundswell of public opinion). They are not entirely mindless when it comes to their way of life, although some traditions and rituals are more sacred than others. Children are taught at home by both parents and also older siblings not yet of mating age, and any given family may have twenty or sixteen hatchlings and underaged fledglings at once as a maximum, but most parents tend to spread out their clutches to save their own sanity. One of the key messages taught to children as soon as they could open their eyes was loyalty to Clan and Chylene, and Guild-loyalty is a lesson any near-adult Chyleni is taught when they apprentice. Chylene's spiritual people worship a number of animistic gods, such as the monster fish in their seas or the gods of the air and soil and good old fashioned rocks and trees. Every home on the planet has some small unobtrusive shrine in a nook or small room that the family uses for daily devotions before breakfast and going to bed at night. Given the plethora of deities in the planetary consciousness, it's amazing that the people didn't devolve into religious jihads, but Chyleni common sense won out because they realized such warring behavior would have destroyed their world. Most Chyleni prize Order over Chaos and thus it's extremely difficult to find a dirty or cluttered Chyleni home or workplace. Precision is a way of life for them and while their homes may be tastefully decorated, they are also precisely decorated. Beauty is also a way of life, and there is nothing on Chylene that is merely functional. It ties in with the spiritual asthetic that there's no reason why something cannot be functional and beautiful at the same time. Surprisingly, the Chyleni themselves rarely value physical beauty amongst their people as a means to an end, preferring to honor those who are strong in flight or adept with their minds or hands. This preference for beauty and function is evident also in their language. It's been described as a 'liquid' sort of language very fond of vowels and sibilants that aren't present in basic. Aside from the musicality of the language itself, it must be noted that Chyleni do not use contractions with one singular example noted below. A Chyleni's personal honor is extremely important to them, as is upholding the honor of one's Clan and/or Guild, and sometimes the three may conflict in terms of what is the right or correct choice to make. In Chyleni society, it is considered acceptable to refuse an order from one's Guildmaster if it clashes with a Clan's or even one's own personal honor, although the Chyleni refusing had better explain it is a matter of honor to the Guildmaster in question. However, amused parents will not accept 'it was against my personal honor' as an excuse as to why one of their hatchlings refused to clean his or her room. A Chyleni's full public name is a first name that is publicly known and then a contracted secondary name that is chosen by the Chyleni upon their 16th birthday. This second name is of a dual nature. Publicly, it will match the rest of the Clan's last name. When a Chyleni has chosen a lifemate and is given permission or chooses to reveal their full last name, they do so only to that lifemate and it is kept secret to all. For example, Kyrin Sh'vani was simply called 'Kyrin' until she was 16, when she took on the Clan-name 'Sh'vani', signifying her ascension into the ranks of the adults. When she chose her lifemate, she revealed to him her entire last name, a secret only for him. This secret hidden name is the only example of Chyleni using an apostrophe in their language as an actual contraction. All other uses deal with possession, such as saying 'this is Arryn's toy'. Only the most extreme scandalous Chyleni would use a Basic term such as 'you're' instead of 'you are'. They regard it as disrespectful of one of their most secret notions to apply a contraction to everyday speech. Chyleni mate for life, and there are no concepts for 'remarriage' or 'divorce' in their language. Due to a Chyleni's loyalty to family and Clan, a Chyleni would commit suicide before abandoning those responsibilities, and there are no such things as arranged marriages on the planet. The Chyleni felt that lifematings were serious enough to allow those intending to make that choice do so of their own free will. Unattached Chyleni are free with their affections with either gender, although if eggs are produced, the pair in question are expected to undergo the lifemating ritual and spend the rest of their lives together. Chyleni culture treats them as adults and expects responsibility that is generally followed. Once lifemated, neither Chyleni will have sexual relations with another being other than their chosen mate, even if that mate dies or is somehow incapacitated. If a couple is not fertile, there are unfortunately enough orphans on the planet that there will always be a hatchling or youth in need of parental care. There is allegedly no adultery on the planet, as it's considered violating the balance of life. It's not unknown, however, for two adult Chyleni who have lost their mates to be singularly close friends that are known not to be mates, but simply companions for life. As Chyleni age and eventually lose the strength to fly, they are cared for by the Honored Caretakers Guild, whose members are young, nearly of lifemating age or early into their lifemating. The Guild ensures to the physical needs of the elderly and that they are treated with respect by all Chyleni, including ensuring they have transportation anywhere they wish to go (within reason). Once a Chyleni dies, he or she is cremated with robes made from a secret extraction of eleran, and their ashes are used to bolster the roots of the great Trees that cover the southern continents and on the farmland on the northern continents. It is believed that in such a manner, any Chylene worthy of honor will then be of eternal use to the rest of society and that their goodness passes forward to future generations. Rituals It is a joke (mostly to non-Chyleni) that the only thing Chyleni do as often as breathing is follow through various rituals they've designed to deal with life. There are rituals for nearly every facet of life, whether it's for the grand events of birth, lifemating, honor duels, praying to the gods, and death or for the lesser events, such as eating, meal-preparation, combat, clothes-making, using the facilities, haggling for goods, etc. The rituals vary in form from a brief silent prayer before eating to days-long mourning events. When it comes to the rituals involving lifemating, the actual act is merely an exchange of full last names, but there are weeks of preparations, asking friends ritualistically whether the lifemating should take place, praying to the gods, that sort of thing, before a final answer can be given. The benefit of these innumerable rituals is they provide a structure to Chyleni society that allows it to treat the world around it with respect and proper decorum. The downside is that it has in many ways stunted the growth of the society because it prevents new ways of thinking from penetrating the society. While the Chyleni are fairly competent and surefooted mentally, some of them refuse to think outside the box or worse, are completely lost when facing a situation that none of their vaunted rituals are good for. Often that leads to a 'praying to the gods' ritual for divine inspiration or something. The Ritual Guild is in charge of enacting, altering, or discarding rituals, and it's the only Guild whose members are all masters. Every time a member of the Council dies, a twelve-person committee of Guild members (but not the Guildmaster) visits that one's Clan and chooses a successor from the most pure and honorable and wise members of the Clan. It's not very common for a member of the Guild to serve as Elder and/or Councilor but it's not entirely unheard of. Honor Duels Honor duels are a specific set of rituals that are meant to settle matters of honor and even some court cases where one claimant prefers to set aside a judge's declaration and fight for his or her innocence in a duel to the death. The duel is held on a specific day set aside and are attended by as many of either claimant's Clan and/or Guild as possible in a show of support. The general public may also attend if there is room in the chosen venue. Shield generators are used on dueling venues to ensure none of the audience or judges are injured or killed in the course of the duel. All honor duels are judged and run by members of the Warriors Guild, with multiple judges in matters of gravest import. As all Chyleni combat is done on the wing, this is no exception. Both claimants are asked if they choose to quit their claim, and if both decline, then they are given two blasters each of equal power, charge, and targeting alignment and told to have at it. Simply put, the best and most cunning warrior is likely to win. Unfortunately, this sacred ritual has been usurped in the past as a means for a strong but unworthy claimant to kill the other or simply to psyche out the other claimant and get the other to forfeit the claim. Proxies are allowed in the duel, but only from a claimant's immediate family and only if the claimant permits the proxy. It is a matter of pride and personal honor to do one's best to fulfill one's role in the duel, even if it means one's death, and it is a rare duelist indeed who will allow a younger and/or more fit member of their family to stand in their place. By tradition, the use of proxies were frowned on and there is always a social 'taint' on the family that used one, simply because the claimant was allegedly too afraid to fight for his or her point of view. Combat While Chylene is at peace at the time and has been for several centuries for the most part, that's not to say conflict never breaks out and that combat never happens. Led by the Warriors Guild, all planetary fights are overseen with certain guidelines that are meant to try and curtail the conflict to the most direct combatants and to prevent too much damage to the landscape or to planetary resources. All Chyleni combat is aerial. There is no concept for 'infantry' or 'navy' in terms of fighting. Until the proliferation of blasters on the planet, all aerial combat was done with tooth and talon in ancient times, then the Chyleni progressed to melee weapons until too many bystanders were injured or killed due to spears falling out of the sky. In more modern times, all combat involves twin blasters and strafing, dogfighting much like one would see in a space battle with starfighters. Aside from blasters, knives or swords can still be called upon in an honor duel, but are little more than an affectation or nostalgic skill for a modern-day Chyleni warrior to have. The Art The Art is an all-encompassing term for what is the most sacred portion of Chyleni society, basically rituals that have taken the next step. The Art is a combination of song, dance, performance, and visual art that is steeped in legend and mystery. The Art may only be enacted by the Artists Guild, and it is death or worse for anyone not in the Guild to attempt to it. The most intense and inviolate rituals are part of the Art and the lives of those who live within its sheer beauty. In actual performance, the Art can be described as a sand-dance. A Chyleni sings while they dance, and while they dance, they scatter grains of the sacred sands around them. These grains are then captured by a low-level static field and once the performance is over, the runic sand painting left behind is mounted and displayed for all to see. Naturally, these performances also involve flight. There are also group performances, always led by Masters, that create sand paintings for entire villages or the richest members of Chyleni society, and at least one Master is required to be on-hand whenever there is a performance to ensure quality and sacredness of the resulting dance. Apprentices in the Artists Guild are never permitted to handle the sacred sands, but they are permitted to practice with lesser sands with the appropriate rituals declared first, including the important statement 'This is merely practice.' Without that statement, the whole thing is considered cursed and the apprentice in question has to face the Masters who will decide the severity of punishment. It's not been unknown for corporal punishment to be used, or expulsion from the Guild. In the worst cases, an apprentice has either been put to death or Exiled from Chylene, but thankfully, it hasn't happened within living history. Journeys and masters have been Exiled for 'flouting' the Art within living history, but none in the past few years. Performances of the Art are huge events on Chylene, and they are well-attended, with many goods and arhent changing hands for the privilege to watch such beauty being enacted. Space is limited at any given performance to ensure that everyone in the audience has an unobstructed view and the acoustics are done properly. Occasionally, offplanet visitors attend the performances, having somehow heard of the planet and its Art from Exiles or the infrequent spacers who trade with Chylene. Taboos Aside from flagrant violations of societal rules, there are very few taboos present amongst the Chyleni. Sex is a far less taboo subject than it is amongst humans, although Chyleni do not speak of a female's fertile cycles in polite company. There are two main taboos amongst the Chyleni that are best avoided. First, Chyleni scientists have not discovered the geological ancestor to their own species, and there are equal camps favoring either an avian (birdlike) ancestor or a saurian (lizardlike) ancestor. There isn't enough archaeological evidence to give a conclusive answer, and this topic has turned from scientific curiosity to one of the very few topics that could cause a civil religious war on the planet. Advocates of either side have all sorts of evidence for their viewpoint and most will not listen to any perfectly valid evidence from the other side. Lengthy conferences on the matter led to fistfights and aerial battles, which led to duels of honor which decimated the ranks of the advocates until the Chief Elder at the time had to slap a taboo declaration on the matter to save her own people. While research into the truth has been officially halted, there are those Chyleni who are still digging, both literally and historically, to find the truth. The other primary topic that is forbidden to be spoken of amongst Chyleni are those who have been Exiled. Their names are never to be spoken of on Chylene and their deeds are pointedly and deliberately forgotten. Exiles An Exile is someone who is cast out of Chyleni society. In the olden days prior to space travel, this meant eviction to one of the furthest and most isolated islands on the planet. In modern times, this means the Chyleni in question has to actually leave the planet and never return unless somehow pardoned. A pardon is difficult to obtain, as part of the Exiling involves those who remain behind striking all mention of the Exile from their lives, the records of the people, and basically from existence. It is forbidden to speak an Exile's name. In many cases, an Exile may be accompanied by a lifemate, but they are completely severed from their hatchlings, friends, Clan, peers, Guild, everything. To Chylene, the Exile is considered dead and unworthy. This suits the Chyleni burial beliefs that a worthy Chyleni's ashes be used to renew the land. An Exile doesn't deserve such an honor or contribution, in their eyes. A Chyleni can become an Exile for any number of reasons, but it takes the most extreme sort of behavior for the people to vote upon Exile, given the strong Clan ties amongst the people. Unrepentant murder, torture, rape, repeated abusive behavior, severe political embarrassment, violent mental illness are all valid reasons for Exile. Given the shunning and the deliberate forgetting of an Exile's very existence, it's extremely difficult for an Exile to win a pardon, although it has been known to happen in the past, particularly in one case where the Exile was a powerful Guildmaster whose departure would have meant that his extremely loyal Guild (and in this case, his Clan) would have left the planet with him in protest. The Senator on Coruscant maintains a list of Exiles and his or her staff has standing orders to deny access to the Senator for any Exile who tries to press a claim of innocence on Coruscant itself. There are other Chyleni off-planet who are not Exiled, but most do not stay long, most Chyleni preferring their own brand of order and society. History Prehistory Chyleni pre-history is shrouded with myth, legends, outright lies, and religious denunciations as to what actually did happen back then. Like all planets, Chylene went through the usual planet-forming processes, gaining its four moons from the primordial collision of Aelynth V and VI. Life evolved in the seas, migrated to land and found its niche in the Trees. Only on the two largest northern continents were there any huge saurians, but there are deep disputes as to whether the Chyleni themselves evolved from saurian or avian ancestors. The fossil record hasn't yet been conclusive, and no one's too willing (other than the most zealous Chyleni with particular agendas) to go tearing up large tracts of the forest to find out for sure. It's a subject best left for philosophers. The domestication of the kren and cultivation of the crynda and eleran led to the rise of Chyleni civilization, as they were able to move away from simple hunting and gathering and begin to focus on actual learning and controlling their environment. Family and care for the planet were paramount in those primitive days, although there were skirmishes and wars over resources. These wars eventually led to the spread of Chyleni to the furthest reaches of the planet and the discovery of new resources, such as the glowing rocks and Sorenwyrm silk and precious gems and metals. The advent of metal availability sparked a rise in Chyleni culture and the formalization of many of the modern Clan and Guild structures. The most ancient and honored Guild is the Artists Guild, whose ways are still the most unchanged of the lot. The only true major change in their behavior and the Art in all the millennia of Chyleni history is the use of stasis fields to protect the sand art after a performance is complete. The other Guilds were created on a per-need basis, such as the discovery of the great maelryn and the start of the custom of giving the Elders maelryn teeth as symbols of office. The Clans grew to be huge in number until the Chyleni decided to formally recognize only 144 Ancient Clans and reorganized everyone accordingly. Over the millennia, inbreeding ensured that while any given Clan may have started out with certain physical characteristics (basically the same general skin color), the widening of the gene pool ensured that there are extremely few Chyleni who are not mixed blood. The only people to whom pure blood matters are the purebloods themselves, who have no particular social or economic standing because of it, simply because no one else cares about it and ignores it other than as a curiosity. With the oligarchy firmly in place, with only a few pre-historical attempts to overthrow it in favor of a dictatorship or democracy, the Chyleni basically minded their own business and ignored the galaxy at large (and it was mutual). Modern History True Chyleni history began with first contact with the rest of the galaxy and the realization that there were tons of other planets out there with weird sentient beings on it. They joined the Old Republic millennia ago in a nominal sort of fashion, because their location and lack of any truly valuable exports (other than elerain) ensured no one really cared much about the planet. The only use most of the Chyleni found for the galaxy at large was that it was the perfect place for Exiles, because that ensured that the forsaken Exiles could not die on-planet and allegedly soil the environment. The fall of the Republic and Jedi Purge had no effect upon Chylene, as they were mostly self-governing and had no Jedi on-planet for the Clone Troopers to need to exterminate. While the Chyleni Senators of those first years of Imperial rule noted the clamping down on alien life forms and the subtle movement of power away from aliens in favor of humans, it had little effect on the planet in general. The Empire paid a visit to Chylene, stationing a garrison and a few TIE fighters there to test resistance and basically finding very little. The Chyleni approved of the sort of order and decorum the Empire espoused and thus didn't give the Imperials any grief. There were a few isolated incidents involving TIE fighters skimming aerial combat practice or honor duels, but the reports that a contingent of Warrior Guild members combatting and actually shooting down TIE fighters with handheld blasters are considered either sheer fabrication or at the very least, drunken boasting. With Coruscant changing hands like a child's ball being used in a game of catch, life on Chylene hasn't changed all that much. The Senate is still the Senate for the most part, with interruptions only due to Imperial actions between the Battle of Yavin and the Battle of Endor. For the most part, the Chyleni have more important things to bother with than galactic politics. OOC Notes Chylene and its general content was created by the player of Kyrin Sh'vani. Please contact her if you wish to add to or edit the actual content of this page (not if you just want to spellcheck or reformat stuff), and she can assist with answering questions when it comes to applying for a Chyleni or how to properly play one on the MUSH. The #1 FAQ would be 'what race do I use in chargen?' and the answer is Near Human for code-purposes. Category:Independent Planets Category:Non-coded planets